AAS 205th Meeting, 9-13 January 2005
Session 141 Our Friendly Neighbors: M31 and M33
Poster, Thursday, January 13, 2005, 9:20am-4:00pm, Exhibit Hall

Previous   |   Session 141   |   Next

[141.07] Luminous Circumstellar Envelopes in M31

S. Stolovy (SSC), J. Mould (NOAO), K. Su (Univ. of AZ), W. Latter (SSC), M. Werner, F. Morales (JPL), D. Levine (SSC), MIPS Team

We have peformed point source extraction from a Spitzer/MIPS survey of the largest galaxy in the Local Group, M31. The MIPS-24 micron image shows with unprecedented clarity the distribution of evolved stars with circumstellar envelopes in M31. These sources have typical luminosities of 103-104 solar, which are consistent with asymptotic giant branch and red supergiant stars with circumstellar envelopes. Our catalog is cross-correlated with 2MASS and with a recently published catalog of Long Period Variable stars. We interpret the distribution of 24 micron point sources in the context of galactic structure, identifying sources in the nucleus/bulge, arms/rings, and interarm regions. The point sources are superposed on newly revealed structures in diffuse emission emanating from the bulge and nuclear region as well as from the star forming rings seen by ISO and IRAS.

Previous   |   Session 141   |   Next

Bulletin of the American Astronomical Society, 36 5
© 2004. The American Astronomical Society.